"Britain’s Last Invasion, The Battle of Fishguard 1797" Topic

"The reading for this month has concluded with my finishing, ‘Britain's Last Invasion' by Phil Carradice, which, as the Introduction to this book points out, covers an incident in British history that very few of my countrymen would have ever heard of and from a casual question posed to fellow club-mates at the DWG, namely "When was the last invasion of mainland Great Britain?" seemed to confirm with only one of a small sample theorising that the landing at Fishguard in 1797 might be a candidate, with others going for William of Orange and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as more likely.

I myself already knew of this invasion, purely from my reading of an historical write up and suggested wargaming scenario in one of the hobby magazines from way-back-when, with, spoiler alert!!, memories of the fearless Jemima Fawr leading a regiment of black bonnet topped Welsh women in red cloaks out on to nearby hills to scare the French force into surrendering, whilst rounding up foragers at the point of a pitch fork…"

Full Review here

link

Armand

A moot point given the more disruptive and costly French landings in Ireland the following year in support of the United Irishmen risings, though these were equally unsuccessful. The distinction between the island of Great Britain- 'the mainland'- and the island of Ireland is a false one, certainly for the time- west Wales and western Ireland being equally remote from the seat of government.

"Great" Britain refers to the larger of the two main islands, so excludes Ireland.

Not a moot point as legally Ireland was not and has not been a part of Great Britain. Great Britain referred to England, Scotland and Wales and it still does today.

Ireland was effectively an English colony since the 12th century, and after the emergence of Great Britain, it remained under the influence of the British crown. It was officially joined to Great Britain under an act of Union on 1 January 1801. The title of the country from 1801 was "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". After the Irish Free State left the Union the country was renamed in 1927 "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", and remains so to this day.

curious timing just on the market in march 2024 on the other side of the Channel, rarely covered
French landings in Wales and Ireland
french text 288 pages

In collective memory, France has never managed to land in the British Isles, at least since William the Conqueror. The failure of Napoleon's "descent" with the Trafalgar disaster would be the symbol of this. We have forgotten it, but the armies of the Revolution did indeed land in the United Kingdom, in Ireland precisely, at the end of a phenomenal naval and land epic told here by Maxime Reynaud. In 1798, an expeditionary force of 1084 men set foot in an Ireland revolting against British rule and accumulated victories against an adversary far superior in number. If the absence of support from France ultimately condemns this small force to defeat, it will nevertheless have achieved the feat of liberating a territory of 4800 km² and 11 towns, after having won the resounding victory of Castlebar at 700 against 6,000 Beyond a forgotten campaign, this book opens up broader fields of analysis by returning to the Franco-British confrontation for supremacy in Europe.
several sample pages on google-books
link

My point exactly.

Thanks!

Armand